Attorney General Todd Blanche on Tuesday said efforts to tighten rules around mail-in voting will continue beyond November despite the Supreme Court’s refusal to step in and revive President Trump’s plan to police mail-in ballots for the midterm elections.
He said Mr. Trump is “not going to stop” simply because it faced a recent setback in the courts.
“I expect you’re going to see that work continue,” Mr. Blanche said at a White House press briefing in the Rose Garden.
To combat voter fraud, Mr. Trump ordered the Postal Service to get lists from the states of all the people they intended to send ballots to by mail.
The states would then have to send those ballots in envelopes approved by the post office, and with barcodes so postal officials could identify and track them.
A lower court issued an injunction against the plan.
The Supreme Court released a brief order Monday saying Mr. Trump was likely to lose the case when it’s heard fully, so a lower court injunction will remain on hold while lower courts continue to hear arguments.
Mr. Blanche said the administration would comply with the courts’ orders, but it will maintain strict oversight to ensure “free and fair elections.”
“We’re not going to stop the work that we’re doing, but we are of course going to follow the orders of the court,” Mr. Blanche said.
He said every political party should support efforts to safeguard the vote.
“We want to make sure that there is safe voting, and that there is integrity,” he said.
Mr. Blanche also said the Supreme Court’s action “doesn’t affect ongoing criminal investigations into illegal voting.”
Underscoring the point, Mr. Blanche said the department is prioritizing voter integrity in its casework.
In the past 10 days, he said, the department filed charges against 11 persons for illegally voting in 2024 or 2022, or for fraudulently registering to vote.
“In under two years, this administration has charged nearly four times as many non-citizen voting cases as the last administration brought in four years,” he said. “We’re currently investigating hundreds of cases across the country.”
Earlier Tuesday, Mr. Trump wrote a lengthy Truth Social post scolding the justices over their reluctance to get involved in the mail-in voting case. He was particularly disappointed with the three justices he appointed for declining to act.
“He is very frustrated,” Mr. Blanche said. “He has every right, and indeed he should, communicate his concerns with the Supreme Court whenever he has them. This isn’t the first time he’s done it, and it won’t be the last.”
Mr. Blanche said Mr. Trump has praised the Supreme Court in the past, and airing one’s views is consistent with living in an open democracy.
“I am also upset about the Supreme Court decision,” Mr. Blanche said. “But the idea that President Trump shouldn’t be allowed to communicate to the American people his frustration? I don’t share that.”
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